Man Swallows USB Flash Drive Evidence

SlideRuleGuy writes "In a bold and bizarre attempt to destroy evidence seized during a federal raid, a New York City man grabbed a flash drive and swallowed the data storage device while in the custody of Secret Service agents. Records show Florin Necula ingested the Kingston flash drive shortly after his January 21 arrest outside a bank in Queens. A Kingston executive said it was unclear if stomach acid could damage one of their drives. 'As you might imagine, we have no actual experience with someone swallowing a USB.' I imagine that would be rather painful. But did he follow his mother's advice and chew thoroughly, first? Apparently not, as the drive was surgically recovered."

Comments

Next time...

[MachDelta]

Next time, dude should use a microSD card.

And maybe some mayo. Blegh.

That does it

[eln]

I am never, ever getting into the data recovery business.

New definition of

[alman]

data dump?

Re:New definition of

[HockeyPuck]

Since this is storage, I believe you mean dumping core.

I think he needs more Fibre Channel.

The federal gov't RAIDed his house?

If you consume too many of these drives, you get FAT, worst case you get FAT32.

Good thing he didn't have a tape WORM. (ha! two storage jokes in one!).

DAT is a bad way to backup your data.

The article got it wrong, when asked about the USB drive, he didn't say he "ate it" he said he used ADIC.

Re:New definition of

[ArsonSmith]

It was a small USB drive. Only one byte.

New warning on Kingston USB drives

[Chris Burke]

Do Not Eat (if containing evidence in a federal investigation)

Could be worse

[Merenth]

I'm just glad we never got raided when I was storing data on the Vax 6000 tape drives.

Re:the drive was surgically recovered.

[kpainter]

I wonder if they clicked the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon first?

Re:the drive was surgically recovered.

[Taevin]

doctors--concerned that the drive was not compatible with the suspect's GI tract--

Yeah, what a noob. Real geeks have numerous USB ports throughout their intestines and patch their firmware frequently to keep functionality regular.

Obg. Tex Murphy (with apologies)

[Xaroth]

It was only a matter of time before the newly merged Frito-Kingston corporation cornered the chip market.

Re:Hope it was RoHS compliant...

[ircmaxell]

I always check before I swallow electronic evidence.

A man brings his pet monkey to a bar. The monkey runs around eating everything in sight. First the cherries used for garnish. Then all the peanuts. Then the deviled eggs. Finally, he stops after eating a cue ball off the pool table.

The next week, the man returns with his monkey. Once again, the monkey runs to devour the cherries. But this time, instead of just eating it, he shoves the cherry up his ass first, pulls it out and then eats it. The bartender, quite disturbed by this, asks the man why the hell he shoved it up his ass first. The man replies, "Well, after the cue ball incident, he checks the size first before eating anything"...

Re:the drive was surgically recovered.

[MiniMike]

After four days, it probably felt more like FireWire...

Re:Rights violation?

[Qzukk]

In fact I would say his actions show he is perfectly aware of how screwed he is/could-be.

The USB stick is a red herring. The REAL evidence is on the microSD card he shoved up his nose.